“Strong Man” Is Weakling Compared with Insect (Mar, 1922)

“Strong Man” Is Weakling Compared with Insect

WEIGHT for weight, the most powerful professional “strong man” is a weakling compared with many common insects. If our legs had the same relative power as those of a flea, for example, we could jump with ease over a church spire 300 feet high.

An ant moving a heavy pebble up a little slope of earth is performing a feat equivalent to that of a man pulling a railroad train along the track single-handed. Ants have frequently drawn little wagons 1400 times as heavy as themselves.
Even the weakest beetle can lift five times its own weight. The rove beetle has drawn a cart 45 times its own weight, and has lifted 1800 times its weight in escaping from beneath the cover of a tin can.

An ant, caught up by its hind legs with pincers, has been known to lift a small lead ball, into which it has bitten with its maniples, high into the air. As the ball weighed 800 times as much as the ant, a man with strength in proportion could lift 40 tons.

Ah man, please never stop doing this blog! It’s just that great! All these crazy things which just were normal and up to date a few years ago.
I love it.
Thank you!

GEOvanne says: December 20, 200910:42 pm

Wrong, bugs are only strong because they are small. As they increase in size, the eight goes up even more. So an ant our size would even be able to lift its head. And if we were ant size we’d be able to lift about 45 time our weight.

GEOvanne says: December 20, 200910:45 pm

Bigger means heavier and in order for the muscles to keep up the strength, they would also have to get bigger, which means bigger skeleton to hold on to, which would in turn mean even more weight and a bigger body which calls for more muscle and the cycle goes on and on.